Florida State-N.C. State game looms large in ACC Atlantic Division race

TALLAHASSEE — Not long after he became the head coach at Florida State, Jimbo Fisher made clear his priorities. He detailed his plan to overhaul several components of the Seminoles' program. He emphasized the importance of reestablishing Florida State's lost dominance in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Only then, Fisher often said, could the Seminoles again become a national power. In that context, then, Florida State's game on Thursday night at N.C. State has taken on added significance – the kind perhaps normally reserved for a rivalry game.

The Seminoles will enter Carter-Finley Stadium atop the Atlantic Coast Conference's Atlantic Division as the division's only team with a perfect conference record. The Wolfpack, healthy after two injury-plagued seasons, have but one conference loss. The winner on Thursday night – especially if it's Florida State – would control the division and become the favorite to play for the league championship in Charlotte in early December.

Not that Fisher and his players are getting ahead of themselves. Though Fisher freely talked about the big picture during booster club appearances and other speaking engagements during the off-season, he said earlier this week he has avoided such discussion with his players.

"They can't think about that because they can't control that," he said. "If you want to improve the big picture, play it one game at a time and have success in every game … when you're painting a picture you've got to paint it in sections. And this is another section of that painting that we have to do well."

The Seminoles have defeated the Wolfpack three years running but N.C. State proved to be a nemesis to Florida State throughout the late 1990's and 2000's. The Wolfpack gave Florida State its second conference loss in 1998, and then in 2001 became the first ACC team to win at Doak Campbell Stadium since FSU joined the league.

Though N.C. State and Florida State formed a quasi-rivalry – especially when former longtime Seminoles assistant Chuck Amato coached the Wolfpack – the teams have rarely met with more at stake.

They have, in fact, met just once before this late in the season with one conference loss between them. That game, coincidentally, came on Oct. 28, 2000 – exactly 10 years to the day before Thursday night. The Seminoles cruised to a 58-14 victory that night, a footnote in another season that ended with a top-5 national ranking.

Florida State hasn't finished a season ranked that highly since. And Fisher believes his program won't be what it once was until it reestablishes itself in the conference.

Which is why Thursday night is so important for the Seminoles. And perhaps why Fisher hasn't even had to talk about it.

"I think it's understood," Seminoles quarterback Christian Ponder said, referring to the significance of the N.C. State game. "We don't want to get way too ahead of ourselves. We just know that it's another ACC game, intra-divisional game. It's a necessary win."

A win that could propel Florida State back to North Carolina in a little more than a month.